Have you ever felt sick, and your doctor couldn’t figure out what was wrong? Well, one Wilmington woman says she’s now cancer-free because of a second opinion from ChatGPT.
In my mind, ChatGPT saved my life.
Lauren Bannon, the 42-year-old wife and mother who lives in Wilmington, says two years ago she thought her time was running out.
It started in February 2024, when she first noticed stiffness in her hands and later severe stomach pains.
It was weird, my fingers wouldn’t bend, my pinky fingers in the morning and night they were completely stiff. Completely bent over and it would be like that for 15 minutes and go away throughout the day.
Bannon says doctors believed it was rheumatoid arthritis, although every test was coming back negative.
Frustrated and desperate for answers, she decided to bypass standard waiting rooms and ask ChatGPT for answers.
My husband thought I was crazy for asking the computer all of these questions. He was like, ‘I can’t believe you’re talking to ChatGPT.’ That’s when I put in, and I said, ‘What mimics rheumatoid arthritis?’ And it said test your TPO level; you may have Hashimoto.
Hashimoto’s disease is an autoimmune disorder where the body attacks the thyroid, which can trigger cancerous tumor growth.
Bannon took the information back to her doctor, and after a few tests, ChatGPT was proven right.
They did an ultrasound on my neck, and that’s when they found a lump on my left and the right thyroid on both sides.
That was in October 2024, and by January 2025, Bannon underwent surgery to remove her thyroid and lymph nodes.
And now, approaching the two-year mark since that digital second opinion, Bannon is cancer-free.
Once they removed the thyroid, all the symptoms that I had with my hands, my joints, and all my stomach issues, they just went away. Just disappeared.
Bannon says the chatbot wasn’t a replacement for her doctors, but says it was the tool that empowered her to fight for her own life.
We know our own bodies, we know how we feel. It could be right; it could be wrong. But it was right for me, and I truly believe sitting here today that it saved my life.
